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May 7, 2011

On a chilly winter morning I had to leave for Delhi
from Srinagar. I had booked a flight for my destination so I moved to the
Srinagar airport three hours ere my flight. After too much red-tapism in security checking at the terminal I made it to the
boarding landmark.

Once I boarded the plane,
announcements in English and Hindi were aired by the cab assistants regarding
the various safety pre-requisites prior to take off. At first it sounded fine but
soon I got astounded at their presentation. It was a flight from Srinagar with
most of the passengers as Kashmiris so I was expecting announcements in Urdu or Kashmiri besides English and Hindi but
when I looked at the faces of my co-travellers, I found almost everyone
dumbfounded on listening to the English chit chat by the air hostess. Almost Every
passenger was staring at the pompous facial expressions of the lady-wardens
with their mouth wide open trying to get something out of their blabbing.

Well I appreciate their
grandeur fluency in speaking English and so called “shudh(pure) Hindi”.10 out of 10 for that. But in this way if the
crowd is not getting the message to be conveyed then the main objective behind
announcements about the passengers’ safety is washed out. If God-forbid any
emergency occurred in the plane then what can one expect from the naive
passengers to do for their safety when they were not properly informed about
the same. It`s very obvious that all the passengers that travel in a plane are
not equally educated or at least arrive from different communes understanding
different languages and as such when one announces some important message in a
language whose probability of being rightly interpreted is very less then chaos
results.

The bottom-line is
broadcast announcements in a language that`s easily understood and whose
probability of being clearly inferred is maximum as per the passengers`
background.

The name is enough to make your mouth water like anything
writes Abdul Wajid Parray.

“Barbecue” or better call it “seek-e-Tujj”. The name is enough to make your mouth water like
anything. This splendid recipe needs no introduction as such; since everyone is
well aware of its amazing taste. But for the sake of editor`s feel to give this
write-up an OKAY remark, let me define “barbecue”.

Well ‘Barbeque’ is a special
non-vegetarian recipe that is prepared by smoking or baking chopped meat pieces
over slow-burning wood or charcoal. Popularly known as seek-e-tujj in Kashmir, the tongue pleasing barbecue which amply
rules the hearts of all the foodie people in Kashmir has a tale to enlighten.

First of all, let me throw light on the
various varieties of barbecue: In US it mainly consists of pork (pardon me for
mentioning that) where as beef prevails there in and around Asia. Even there
are many different methods to prepare it including the baking, smoking and
braising. Anyways let`s talk about the valley of Kashmir. Here barbecue or Tujj is simply found in the form of
minced mutton or beef held through steel rods called seekh over an iron grill and roasted over red heated ember called bath-e-Czini. Once ready, it is served
along with chutnee over special
Kashmiri bread called lawasa. The
mutton or katt-e-maaz claims to be
the finest of the seek-e-tujje and
costs the most but the cost is entirely worth its grand and majestic taste.
After mutton, follows the beef or buod
maaz and finally the second-rate option is that of the skull meat or Kall-e-maaz which is considered as the
least expensive. Thus the main ingredient of the tujj is the mutton but on account of the escalating price of
mutton, the pocket-friendly beef has engulfed the markets. The vendors of the tujj commonly recognized as the tujje-woul usually pile up a small
wooden structure, in the form of a canopy, for selling their product, the tujje. These vendors can be seen mostly
winnowing the tujje with some handy
fan or any cardboard scrap called gatt-e`.
Although many fine tujj walas have
successfully expanded their petite shops into well organised hotels and
restaurants, but as a rule you will find tujje-walas
shops as pushcarts held fixed on ground with their wheels detached and
supported by some uneven bricks and stones as boulders. I doubt if they have
any stay order for that or not but doesn`t matter because we all are well aware
of the phrase“ Kashmir mei sab chalta hai”
These unstable woody structures are so cramped and less spaced that you have to
keep yourselves stand-up all along enjoying the tujj. But that makes no difference at all because the extreme
fervour of the tasty tujj engulfs the
minds of its users to the fullest. Be it harsh wintry cold or hot scorching
summer, the flavoursome non-vegetarian recipe is liked wholly the entire year.

Now turning the wheel to the history of
Barbecues. Well many beliefs exist there about the origin of the barbecue. Some
believe that the word barbecue has been derived from the root word “barbacoa” meaning “sacred fire pit”. It
arrived from the Caribbean to Spanish, Portuguese and French and then to
English. In French barbecue means “from
beard to tail” indicating the roasting of an animal from head to tail in a
hearth. Another claim is that barbecue is a truncated form of bar-bear-cue or
Bar-B-Q as it is believed that it originated from the time roadhouses came up
with pool tables and thus labelling BAR, beer and Cue or BBQ. In fact, in
modern English barbecue refers to any social cookout that has roasted meat as
its main ingredient.

Okay!
Coming back to our valley, if one has to trace the history of barbecue in
Kashmir then a genuine view is that the Kashmiris were greatly influenced by
the cultures which arrived with the invasion of Kashmir from central Asia,
Persia and Afghanistan. This sphere of influence reshaped the art, custom,
rituals, belief and mainly the food-culture of Kashmir from time to time. There
are even more dogmas about the arrival of barbecue in Kashmir as through the
ethnic group of northern Pakistan called the Balti. Period! Whatever may be the philosophy and the past behind the
barbecue in Kashmir, I will feel proud to kiss the hands of that credible
person for such a wonderful gift to the valley of Kashmir.

Moving on to the countless devotees of the seek-e-tujj in Kashmir among which the srinagarites
have fallen into an extreme romance with the tujj. One can find its vendors (tujje-walas)
almost in every street corner of the city. But if you are a non-veg freak and never like to
compromise for the yummy taste then there are some picky eating places in
Srinagar that rule the roast in barbecue sale and are extensively known for
providing the top-notch seekh-e-tujj
in Srinagar. Among these popular food-savvy areas include the Khayam chowk, Nowpora; not to mention the exotic boulevard road about which there is a touch of some heavenly add-on.
The fact behind the zeal of this eating point is that the splendid beauty of
the Dal Lake blends with the extreme taste of the tujj giving the combo a unique identity. Besides the evening hours
is regarded as the preeminent time to have barbecues at the Dal Lake. I don`t
know the exact reason for this but the tujj-lovers
say that it adds to the taste of BBQ`s to have it during the late hours of
sundown. Sitting at the parapets along the Dal Lake, the glamorous scene of the
sunset plus the soothing breeze from the great Dal Lake adds to the taste of
having seekh-e-tujj much the same way
as the Lawasa and chutnee adds to its tang. I myself am a
big follower of having tujj along the
Dal Lake. The aroma that comes out of the burning of fat over the red hot
embers attracts the customers like a strong magnet attracting the puny nails.
Ha-ha, the Tujje-waalas use this
mouth-watering smell as their main advertising strategy to catch their
customers. Indeed a very witty marketing policy, I must say.

Well,
the meat-culture in the valley has spread its tentacles all over the valley and
has engulfed not only Srinagar but people from other districts are getting more
and more addicted to this NON-VEG thing. Ironically the patron customers of the Tujj-walas are the daily wagers including
the Bus-conductors, drivers, street-hawkers and the like. Not to mention the
young Arnolds, I mean the body-building freaks who feel having red meat is the
only thing that can pump-up their physique speedily in few days. For them, it`s
becoming more like a staple food, alas an inevitable habit.

The cult of Seekh-e-Tujj in Kashmir despite being exceptionally appetizing is
considered an indecent move in the Kashmir society for it is mainly associated
with lewd bullies and other rude foodie guys whose only job is to fart around sitting
at the street-corners round the clock. Mostly the shabby people, the hulks and
the goons are seen buzzing around these tujj-walas.
In fact it`s mainly considered as a manly stuff and rarely will you find any
female around a tujj-woul (BBQ vendor). Other reason for
labelling it as “bad” is that it`s very much associated with alcoholism. Some
more come up with the justification that it is unhealthy due to the fact that
it is not well roasted by keeping the meat uncooked due to improper heat. Following
this, people feel too shy to have the tujj
publicly in the broad day light and usually prefer to take it in the
evening hours after returning from their daily work. One can mainly see the tujj-addicts thrashing the streets at
the dusk in the late hours.

Even
with such demerits, people can`t avoid the
tujj because of the magnificent taste of the tujj that`s just inevitable. I too join the same fervour but not
so habitually rather socially, once or twice a month as a treat along with my
peers. In fact down to the longing taste of the seekh-e-tujj, I never mind its downsides. Oops! I can`t say more
about having tujj; my parents will
get to know about my romance with the tujj
and I don`t want to earn their wrath just for sincerely sharing my secret. So
the rest is left for your presumption.

Lastly,
I wind up my barbecues with a kind advice: Firstly for those who have never experienced
the wonderful tujj, I suggest tasting
it at least for one time and I bet my boots their tongue won`t stop licking the
leftovers on their fingers and plates...ha-ha. Secondly, the message for the
tujj-savvy people is that the
difference between a food-lover and being voracious needs to be underscored.
Our fever pitched infatuation towards tujj
must not transform into an inevitable addiction. The extreme fervour is fine up
to some extent but spending most of your fortune and that too lavishly is not a
good math. Last of all, a decent romanticism with the tujj is the only requisite point to finish up this article.